[wank]

I have to play with someone new shortly and the tournament is rather important. Having played some boards for practice, it's evident my partner has a massive problem with slam evaluation, e.g. routinely making space consuming sign-offs with hands which are maximum for his bidding. Is there an objective test I can tell him to perform that might help him during the bidding?

Example: I remember something from the Culbertson era, whereby if slam was cold opposite a perfect minimum, you could make a try. Is this still considered vaguely sensible?

I'm not expecting partner's judgment to improve overnight, but something as a quick fix to get through the tournament would be fine.

[Cyberyeti]

I think the comment you quote is sensible although you may need some qualification about 5 level safety.

The concept of "the box" (basically what are the minimum and maximum for my bidding so far and where does my hand fit within this) for hand evaluation might be a useful one to introduce.

[billw55]

If he is all that unaware, constructing possible hands for partner might be beyond him. Maybe try something simpler? Such as, if you have an extra ace beyond game values, at least consider slam. Not sure I would harp on safety, it sounds like he is overdoing that already.

[gnasher]

Start a thread on an internet forum saying "Partner massively underbids on slam hands" and see if he notices.

[ArtK78]

I believe that the comment that you are referring to is that if game is cold opposite a perfect minimum then your hand is worth an invite. I am not aware that anyone has extended that line of thought to slams, as there are different factors in play. But it is certainly a good starting point.

Don't know about whether the thought dates back to the Culbertson era. I wasn't around then.

[Zelandakh]

How about if you try to get him to think of jumps in game forcing auctions as showing total garbage (in context) and that the non-jump is the normal bid, rather than the jump simply denying slam interest? Or you try promoting the idea that the big key to doing well in the important tournament is finding every slam because of the high quality of the opposition, and you want him to keep his eyes open for every opportunity. I think this kind of thing is about the best you can do at short notice, a simple focused idea to keep at the top of his thoughts.

[Free]

Seems like your partner needs some re-education about bidding in general. In my experience, if you don't handle the source of problems you'll only make it worse. So if you give him some 'quick' advice, he'll take it literally and start ruining hands rather than improve.

My advice: be glad you won't miss slams which go down and hope you get the hands that have to make a move when slam makes.

[gszes]

Give p a fixed number to begin with (i like to use 34) for how many "points"
the partnership needs to consider a small slam. Once they have that in mind
make sure they count everything and see if their potential maximum allows
for slam bidding opposite your potential maximum. A great place to start is
when your hand a a fixed value like 1n 15-17 lets say you open 1n and p
holds AKxxxx x x Axxxx.

Your p will quickly realize this hand is worth a ton more than a mere 11 hcp
espeically when you emphasize there is already a known spade fit and they
can begin counting short suit points immediately. A quick count reveals they
have 11 hcp 4 length points 4 short suit points and they will see their 19 count
opposite your maximum of 17 is more than enough to at least invite slam then
show them the benfits of fast arrival to show hand with little slam interest and
slower bidding to show slam interest.

If you can get partner just to reason on one hand like this they will be able
to extrapolate the concept on many other hands. Once you convince them that
the bidding should be similar to 1n 2h 2s 3c 3n 4s for ex they will get the idea
they are showing slam interest by going slow and allowing you to decide
how well your hand fits opposite theirs.

[helene_t]

If you are to play a tournament shortly you don't have time to educate him. If there are some agreements with which you are both familar (be it quanti, fast arrival, whatever) then discuss in which situations they apply and what they mean.

If his hand evaluation is bad today it will still be bad in a couple of months. It might be better in a couple of years if you work on it. But for now you just need to be sure that you are playing the same system and that you understand each other style reasonably well.